H. Otto
WittpennMayor of Jersey City,
1908-1913

Henry
Otto Wittpenn, a Democrat, became Jersey City's twenty-fourth mayor at a
time of intense partisan conflict in local and state politics. In 1907 Wittpenn
defeated the three-term Republican incumbent mayor Mark
M. Fagan, who unseated Wittpenn six years later. Wittpenn's four attempts
to become governor of New Jersey in 1907, 1910, 1913, and 1916 during the
Wilsonian era brought him statewide recognition.

Born in the Bergen-Lafayette
section of Jersey City on October 21, 1872, Wittpenn was the son of John
J. and Rebecca Wittpenn and the eldest of five children. The German immigrant
family lived above their corner grocery store at 320 Communipaw Avenue
and Pine Street. Young Wittpenn and A.
Harry Moore, the future three-time governor of New Jersey, were boyhood
friends growing up in the Lafayette neighborhood. Wittpenn graduated Public
School #13 on Pine Street (no longer standing), the High School of Jersey
City (later Dickinson),
and attended a German university to study languages and mathematics.

Wittpenn worked the
family grocery store. After his father's death, he expanded the business
to include a wholesale feed operation at Black
Tom Island. In time he sold the food establishment and helped found
Houghtaling & Wittpenn for the manufacture and sale of face brick;
it had offices at 44 East 23 Street in New York City and a factory in
Pennsylvania.

Wittpenn got into
local politics in 1903 as the Democratic party leader in the Lafayette
section. He reportedly drew attention to himself that year after giving
a spontaneous oration for the mayoralty candidate James J. Murphy, supported
by Robert "Little Bob"
Davis, the Democratic party boss of Hudson County ("H. Otto Wittpenn,
Banker, Is Dead." New York Times 26 July 1931). Murphy was
defeated, but Wittpenn's impassioned appeal to the crowd at the Tabernacle
Palace in Jersey City was not lost on Davis. Davis. Davis projected that
Wittpenn could secure the votes of the city's German population in a county
election.

Wittpenn was drafted
to run in 1904 as the Democratic candidate for the office of Hudson County
Supervisor, which he won by a plurality of 3,535; it was an important
victory as few Democrats succeeded that year due to the presidential sweep
by Theodore Roosevelt. Two years later Wittpenn was easily reelected Supervisor
of Hudson County with an impressive plurality of 20,449, carrying even
the most heavily Republican wards.

Wittpenn became known
for his seeming ability to transfer his business acumen and management
style to local governance. But his independent action and the use of his
veto power over Davis' favored proposals before the Hudson County Board
of Freeholders, to which there was no appeal, put Wittpenn in Davis' disfavor:
"When Wittpenn looked upon the board's acts that he was expected
to approve, he found much to criticise [sic], and felt forced to stand
in the way of a lot of the board's schemes of extravagance or worse"
("Wittpenn Wresting Control from Davis." New York Times
5 September 1910).

Wittpenn and Davis
were often at odds during Wittpenn's second term as County Supervisor.
Davis recognized Wittpenn's growing popularity. Rather than attempt to
turn him out of local politics, Davis decided to support Wittpenn's ambition
to become mayor of Jersey City--that would allow Davis to replace him
in the County Supervisor's job. It also presented an opportunity to challenge
incumbent Mayor Fagan, the New Idea reformer, who Davis tried to unseat
in 1901, 1903 and 1905. In the mayoral election of 1907 against Fagan,
Wittpenn won handily with a majority of 9,324 votes and he carried every
ward.

Success at the polls
emboldened Wittpenn to make appointments to city offices independently
of Davis. Local historian Joan D. Lovero comments that "Wittpenn
had been handpicked by the organization, but he had his own ambitions
and was not the complete pushover Boss Davis had counted upon" (78).
Wittpenn appointed A. Harry Moore, his boyhood friend and chief political
lieutenant, as his secretary and Davis as City Collector, the position
that he had lost under Fagan's mayoralty. Wittpenn again defeated Fagan
in 1909 for the mayoralty, capturing 56 per cent of the vote (23,073 votes),
and Andrew Knox, the Republican candidate, by 13,000 votes in 1911.

Wittpenn's second
term in 1910 seemed to forecast the end of a forty-year tradition of Hudson
County political bosses: "Bill" Bumstead, "Billy"
McAvoy, "Denny" McLaughlin, and Davis. The New York Times
took note of his achievement: "Mayor Wittpenn is the first man in
political, business, or social life who had dared to seriously challenge
the supremacy of any of them" ("Wittpenn Wresting Control from
Davis." New York Times 5 September 1910). The issue of patronage
tested the relationship between Wittpenn and Davis. For example, Wittpenn
rejected Davis' choice for City Hall custodian and appointed Frank
Hague, then a constable, to the post. Davis' twenty-year tenure was
also nearing an end due to his loss of control of politics in Bayonne,
North Hudson and Hoboken; the counterweight of Jersey City in Hudson County
was eroding.

As mayor, Wittpenn
aligned himself with the New Idea progressive reforms, but he was not
the strongest of advocates so as to win both the regular and independent
Democrats (Noble 98). Historian Ransom Noble remarks that "He had
enjoyed a reasonably successful administration, and had carried on--albeit
somewhat half-heartedly at times--the equal tax and public utility fights
of his New Idea predecessor [Mark Fagan]" (97). In an article for
John Muirhead's Jersey City of To-Day (1910), Wittpenn espouses
progressive reform to meet the economic challenges to municipalities adjacent
to Jersey City by creating "a greater, grander city, a consolidation
of all under the corporate title of Greater Jersey City" (30). He
also looked to the merchants of the Jersey City Board of Trade (predecessor
to the Chamber of Commerce) to contribute to the betterment of the city.

Like Fagan, Mayor
Wittpenn wished to beautify the city and began a Shade Tree Commission
in 1908. He then appointed the landscape architect John T. Withers to
the commission; he and other professionals planted trees and shrubs in
the city's parks, including Bayside Park on Garfield Avenue, Leonard
Gordon Park on Kennedy Boulevard, and Riverview Park on Palisade Avenue,
and along Montgomery Street and Communipaw, Bentley, Gifford, West Side,
and Bergen avenues. To advance education in the city, Wittpenn appointed
Cornelia F. Bradford, founder of the Whittier
Social Settlement House on Grand Street, the first woman to the Jersey
City Board of Education in 1912. Bradford had become synonymous with the
ideals of progressive era reform. He also oversaw the completion of the
Jersey City Hospital begun under Fagan's reform platform.

Wittpenn's first attempt
to capture the Democratic party nomination for governor in 1907 was unsuccessful.
Davis withheld his support believing Wittpenn would use the office to
advance a progressive reform agenda. In 1910, as a second-term mayor of
the state's second largest city, he again sought the governor's office.
In so doing, he clashed with Davis regarding delegates to the New Jersey
State Convention. As a result, he recruited a delegation of his own, and
rallied the anti-Davis contingency to his support. With no political capital
outside of Jersey City, however, Wittpenn made no inroads at the convention.
It nominated Woodrow Wilson, then president of Princeton University, with
the backing of the state party leader Senator James Smith and Boss Davis.
Wittpenn recognized the odds against him and deferred to make his party's
nomination for governor a unanimous choice.

When Governor Wilson
ran for the American presidency in 1912, James F. Fielder, president of
the state senate, became acting governor. The following year in the regular
gubernatorial election, Fielder was the likely Democratic nominee, again
derailing Wittpenn's quest for the position. Wilson supported Fielder
while allowing Wittpenn to believe he would get the President's backing
in the next gubernatorial election. Under the 1844 New Jersey Constitution
then in place, Fielder was not eligible to run for a second consecutive
term.

Meanwhile, back on
his own home turf in Jersey City, political changes were at work to drive
Wittpenn further from his goal to become New Jersey governor. In the spring
of 1913, Jersey City voters exchanged its mayor-council form of government
for a commission-style of government according to the Walsh-Leavitt Commission
Government Act of 1911. The intent of the voters was to reform Jersey
City politics by ending boss rule. Under the plan, a mayor is chosen from
five elected commissioners. Now out of office, Wittpenn prepared a slate
of candidates that split the city's Democrats. Former Republican Mayor
Fagan, seeking reelection, returned to the political arena with his slate
of commissioners that included James J. Ferris and Frank Hague. Fagan
and others claimed the local race was being used merely as Wittpenn's
springboard to seek higher office; some opponents charged that Wittpenn
was building a political machine of his own.

Fagan received the
highest number of votes (21,379) in the election, returning him to the
mayoralty. The only Wittpenn candidate to win a commission was A. Harry
Moore, who became Director of Parks and Public Property. Joining the Fagan
administration advanced Moore's career and brought him into a long-term
association with Hague, the Director of Public Safety. The commission
form of government also set the course for Hague's future as a reform
politician. It was suggested that Wittpenn's failure to lead his slate
of five commissioners, save one, to victory over Fagan's slate of commissioners
was a sign of Wittpenn's decline in popularity in the city. When the Hudson
County Democratic Committee met in July of 1913, they withdrew their earlier
unanimous endorsement of Wittpenn in favor of Fielder. Wittpenn also found
that the state convention system he relied on replaced by the nominating
primary.

Despite
his protestation, Wittpenn bowed out of the gubernatorial race in deference
to Fielder upon the advice of President Wilson. The correspondence between
Wilson and Wittpenn was printed in the New York Times. Wilson wrote
to Wittpenn on July 23, 1913, explaining that his was "a practical
political choice": "Fielder backed me so consistently, so intelligently,
so strongly and earnestly throughout my administration . . . I feel that
I would have no grounds whatever upon which to oppose his candidacy."
Wilson's choice of Fielder, in fact, prevented a three-way nomination
race with former mayor Frank S. Katzenbach of Trenton that Wilson wished
to avoid. Wittpenn responded on July 25, 1913, that he would withdraw
from the campaign for the good of the party and "that my continuation
in the race would be unwise, and likely to cause factual strife and jeopardize
the progressive movement in the state." As a conclusion to his letter,
Wittpenn appealed to Wilson to continue the cause of the progressive movement
for "good government and clean politics" in the state and Hudson
County; they could only come about with the election of a progressive
legislature as well as governor (all quoted in "Wittpenn Listens
to Wilson's Call," New York Times 27 July 1913).

In 1914, President
Wilson appointed Wittpenn to the office of naval officer of the Port of
New York for a salary of $8,000 a year. Wittpenn's opponents referred
to the position as a "sinecure" to remove him from active politics
("Family Plans Simple Rites for Wittpenn." Jersey Observer
27 July 1931).

Caroline Bayard Stevens Alexander
Source: The American Magazine, Vol. 73, November 1911 to April 1912.

In 1915 Wittpenn married
Caroline Stevens Alexander of Castle Point, Hoboken. She was a daughter
of Col. Edwin Augustus Stevens and Martha Bayard Stevens and a descendant of the inventor John Stevens,
whose family helped found Hoboken. Caroline's mother, Martha, was one of three trustees who established Steven Institute of Technology (1870) through the bequest of Edwin Augustus Stevens.
The couple met while Wittpenn was County Supervisor. The ceremony took
place at the Church of the Holy Innocents (Episcopal) in Hoboken that her mother founded; it is now part of All Saints Parish.

Caroline Wittpenn
used her services and resources towards a distinguished career in philanthropic
and social reform work. She was involved with numerous organizations that
mostly sought to improve the lives of women and children. They included:
the Board of Managers of Clinton Farms Reformatory for Women, New Jersey
State Board of Children's Guardians, Women's Reformatory Commission, New
Jersey State Charities Aid Association, which she helped found. During
World War I, she was a member of the European Relief Committee. She was
the American Delegate to the International Commission for Criminology
and Prison Management during the administration of Herbert Hoover. On
her 73rd birthday, Mrs. Wittpenn was recognized as the "best loved
woman in New Jersey" for her unprecedented public service ("Mrs.
H.O. Wittpenn, Civic Leader, Dies." New York Times 5 December
1932.)

Now out of elective
office, former Mayor Wittpenn looked to the 1916 gubernatorial election
to resume his political career, his fourth attempt to seek the governor's
office in ten years. He obtained the Democratic party nomination, ran
unopposed in the Democratic primary, had the support of Essex County leader
James R. Nugent and mistakenly believed he had Hague's support (Weingold).

On the state level,
Wittpenn's 1916 campaign was challenged at every turn. The Democratic
party seemed divided by his candidacy. Charges of corruption erupted as
two Boulevard Commissioners running on Wittpenn's ticket were labeled
the "Asphalt Twins" on account of the alleged misuse of funds
in a Hudson Boulevard re-paving project. Wittpenn tried to counter by
warning that returning the Republicans to the state house would bring
back protection for trusts and big business (Weingold).

The Republican candidate
Walter E. Edge was a two-term state senator, who had defeated Col. Austen
Colgate from Essex County and George L. Record of Jersey City in the primaries.
Edge and the Republicans were united on a platform that was promised to
run the state on a "businesslike basis" (quoted in Weingold)
as compared with the previous six years under the Democrats.

Edge warned that Wittpenn
would "turn the state over to the mercies of the Democratic bosses
in Hudson County" (quoted in Weingold). Edge pointed to Jersey City's
adoption of the commission form of government as an attempt to remove
Wittpenn's "incompetent administration" (quoted in Weingold).
President Wilson supported Wittpenn as he had become more skeptical about
Hague's rise to power in Jersey City and the potential negative impact
on progressive reform. When Wilson campaigned for Wittpenn in New Jersey,
Republicans charged it was a sign of Wittpenn's inability to win the race.

The November 3, 1916,
election gave Edge the governorship by a plurality of 69,047, winning
with 247,343 to Wittpenn's 177,696. On the national level, President Woodrow
Wilson successfully faced off against the Republican candidate Charles
Evans Hughes that same year but could not salvage Wittpenn's political
career. After the Wilson and Fielder administrations, New Jersey voters
looked to bring back the Republicans to the state house. Wilson lost New
Jersey and Wittpenn had only a 7,000 plurality in Hudson County. It was
Wittpenn's last campaign and an advantage for Hague's political ambtion.

After this final defeat, Wittpenn resumed a career in business and banking.
He became the president of the First National Bank of Hoboken and the
Hoboken Land and Improvement Company and a director of the First National
Bank of Jersey City. Wittpenn continued to be civic minded and was a member
of the Chambers of Commerce of Hoboken, Jersey City, Northern Hudson County
and the State Chamber of Commerce. He was president of the Hoboken Council
of Boy Scouts. He also spent his later years in charity work along with
his wife. He served as chairman of the Board of Directors of Christ Hospital
and led a fund drive for a hospital wing and nurses home.

Politics affected
Wittpenn's relationship with his longtime associate and friend A. Harry
Moore. When Moore ran for the governorship in 1925, Otto and Caroline
Wittpenn did not support him; instead they supported a relation of Mrs.
Wittpenn, Arthur Whitney of Mendham. Governor Moore, in turn, did not
re-appoint Mrs. Wittpenn to the State Board of Institutions and Agencies.
The friendship must have mended eventually as the Wittpenns supported
Moore when he ran for governor again in November 1931.

Left: PATH Hackensack River Lift Bridge in foreground and the adjacent Wittpenn Bridge alongside.
Photographs circa 1960
Credits: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Historic American Engineering Record. Source: U.S. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, "Built in America" Collection

In 1929, Governor
Morgan F. Larson, a Republican, appointed Wittpenn to the New Jersey State
Highway Commission on which he worked for the development of the Newark-Jersey
City viaduct. In 1930, the former mayor was honored with the naming of
the Wittpenn Bridge. The steel superstructure, with piers and roadway
deck of reinforced concrete, features a four-lane vertical lift span of
83 feet that allows a 100-foot clearance for ships between 140-foot-tall
towers. The bridge facilitates traffic from NJ Route 7 across the Hackensack
River between Jersey City and Kearny at the renovated intersection of
US 1 and US 9; it is one of the most heavily trafficked in the state and
is slated to be repaired and/or replaced by the New Jersey Department
of Transportation.

Wittpenn died on July 25, 1931, at his home in Castle Point, Hoboken.
The funeral took place at Holy Innocents Church; he is buried in Hoboken
Cemetery in North Bergen. Mrs. Wittpenn died in Hoboken on December 2,
1932.

Wittpenn had a home
at 125-127 Kensington Avenue where he lived from the time of his marriage
to several years before his death. Edna Wittpenn, the mayor's sister,
inherited the house when he died. She sold the property in 1940; it was
remodeled by architects Dodge & Morrison into a five-unit apartment
building.